The Bookshop of Forgotten Dreams, a book in which I saw myself represented as a fictional character and where I learned that all I want in life is to own a second-hand bookshop with a small café.

When bad boy Maxime messes up big time, he's sent away for 'community service' at Sarah's bookshop. The two couldn't be more different and they don't like each other at all. But Sarah needs the money that comes with taking Maxime in and Maxime needs to get on good graces. The story spins into a hate-to-love romance where Maxime and Sarah fall for each other, hard. But will it actually work out?

I have to say that I adored the writing. The pacing felt very comfortable and very accessible. Even though the plot was a little predictable (I mean, the good girl falls for the bad guy, who doesn't love that trope?) I was addicted to this book. I couldn't stop reading and before I knew it, I'd finished the book.

I loved Sarah as a character, mainly because she's me if I'd ever open a small second-hand bookshop in France (which is a dream, trust me). Buying more books than she could ever hope to read, being a hopeless romantic based on everything she's read about in books, Sarah was everything I hoped for in a fictional character.
Maxime was a standard bad boy, but I did enjoy his character and I quite enjoyed that we got to read his POV as well. He had plenty of character growth and was actually a big softie. I loved the pair that he and Sarah made.

Overall, I think this book was very well done. It's definitely one I'll be recommending to other booklovers looking for their next romance to pick up.

This was a cute take on ‘good girl meets bad boy’
Max, the over the top, aggressive MMC, with a need for fighting and a very clear anger problem, meets Sarah, our quiet, shy, awkward bookseller and things spiral from there.
I love to see growth in characters. Everyone removed from their comfort zones and truly challenged to be better people. And while some growth did occur, I don’t know how much of it was genuine. If you removed them from the situation, would they still? I’m unsure.
And some of their characteristics were skewed in a way that was slightly unbelievable.
But other than that, this was pretty good. Nicely paced.

Bad boy actor meeting shy introverted bookshop owner? I am sold! This is a romance story set in a small bookshop in a small town in France. I absolutely adore bookshop settings in feelgood and romance. It usually captures the love for books and the importance for books in peoples lives. I really liked the female main character, she is shy, introverted and just loved books. Could relate (especially about the book hoarding. I definitely do not own 800 unread books. Definitely not).

I think the author really managed to do a good work with the characters chemistry and story. In my opinion it was well written and really grippingly written. I have had a lot to do in my life and felt at first not really like reading the book. But I picked it up and I became hooked from the first page. It was exactly what I needed right now in my life in regarding to reading. I really can recommend this to any romance reader, I think it will be hard not to fall in love with this cute setting. An easy five star read for me.

This book had a great concept, but fell way short on the delivery. The parts about books and the bookshop are enjoyable for bibliophiles like myself. But aside from that there are some major issues that the book just cannot overcome.

Having a male lead who is prone to violence, says he "likes fighting", and speaks to those who work for him like a raging a**hole is very hard to like and root for, no matter how much he may grow during the story. I just could not force myself to like him and that's something that will pretty much ruin a Romance every time.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for the opportunity to read this book.

I thought the cover of this book was adorable and I was really looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, the book itself didn't live up to my expectations.

The book was translated from the French, and the translation itself was pretty well done. However, the book often changed points of view with no chapter or section titles or designations which was a bit confusing. In French, that would have worked fine due to their use of gender pronouns.

I didn't like Max, the main character. He was violent, spoiled and angry and any growth he showed didn't feel genuine. Sarah, the other main character, was shy, inexperienced and one dimensional.

Overall, this book just didn't resonate with me.

Max is a famous actor in France, who solves problems with his fists and just assumes his agent will cover him. But when he gets into one fight too many, he gets sentenced to community service in the countryside, at a small bookshop run by Sarah. Sarah is shy and loves her books, but the shop isn't doing well financially and need repairs. This is where Max comes in. Can the sunshine heroine melt the icy exterior of the grumpy hero?

I will forever swoon over the grumpy/sunshine trope, no shame. Also, I think this is the first book I've read set in France, which was a cool change up for me. I loved the characters, the setting, the writing, and the fact that it is dual POV!! It was well done as you see Max fall for Sarah, even as he tries not to.

There isn't much I can say about this book as a critique, outside of wanting more information about the side characters. They had an important part of Sarah's life but you didn't really learn anything about them. Same on Max's side. So I would have preferred more of that.

**Thank you to One More Chapter and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review**

This is a romance novel that plays into the grumpy/sunshine trope and does it very well. The book is an English translation of a French novel and it is a very well done translation nothing stood out to me when it came to the phrasing.
The book is about Maxime, who is an actor with a bad temper and a tendency to burn down everything around him. After a nasty altercation at a bar, his agent, lawyer, and childhood friend come together and stage an intervention of sorts. Rather than send him to jail, he will be put on house arrest for 2 months and have to do community service. His friend has arranged for him to come and help out his friend Sarah, who owns a bookstore in a town about 5 hours outside of Paris.
Sarah's store is in finical straits and after a burst pipe, she is considering selling the story. Maxime coming to stay with her helps solves her finical issues but his abrasive personality does not make it easy. The two clash at the start but it is very clear that they are drawn to each other.
I enjoyed this book, it was a very easy read and I finished it in one sitting. I loved the setting and thought the small-town character were filled in well. As the book goes on the backstories of the two leads are explored but I do wish there was a deeper look into some things. I would have loved to have more interaction with Maxime and his friend Simon.
Overall this was a sweet romance and I think it will make a great summer read.

In my opinion a plot that’s been used over and over and so so writing make this a book I can’t recommend.

The Bookshop of Forgotten Dreams by
Publication Date: June 18, 2021
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Description
“Sarah and Max should never have met. She’s a shy bookworm who’s barely ever left her little village; he’s a bad boy actor with the world at his feet. But when Max crosses one line too many, he’s faced with community service in Sarah’s bookshop.

With an unruly theatre group to run and a gorgeous, tattooed stranger under her roof, Sarah’s about to discover that real life is more complicated than anything she’s ever read in her beloved books…”
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Thank you to @netgalley @harpercollinsuk @onemorechapterhc for the digital ARC in return for my honest review.
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My thoughts…
I must have been in the mood for this book, because I really enjoyed it. This was translated from the original French, there were some odd translations but overall the translation was fine. The “bad boy/shy girl” trope was a bit over the top. I enjoyed the small town feel and the secondary characters. I would have liked to have read more on how Sarah and Max’s relationship developed. Still, it ended up being such a quick, fun and romantic read.

He is the bad boy actor and she owns a bookshop , loves books and her friends are oldery people . After an arrest he has to spend his community service to her shop . Two totaly different people can they coexist ?
I received this novel from net galley and the publisher as an ARC. Thank you! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A very interesting book. Not what I expected. It took me a while to warm to Maxime. He was a strange character.I loved the bookshop. Sarah was lovely. Her passion for books was great.. Set in a lovely place It is a love story

Thank you to Net Galley & Harper Collins for this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I will start by saying that I'm a little undecided in how to rate this book because there were parts that worked for me a lot and parts that I really strongly disliked. The story follows Sarah, a timid wallflower book worm and Max, a tortured bad boy actor (very Shia Labeouf-esque -- minus the recent DV stuff). Facing serious charges after being arrested, Max is sent to live with Sarah and work in her bookshop as community service. From there he finds himself falling into the midst of a quirky village community and falling in love with the shy bookish Sarah.

What I liked about the book: I enjoyed the community aspect of the book. The small french village reminded me a bit of the town in Chocolat, with quirky characters who are bound together in shared experiences, grudges, and long forged family relationships. I loved Sarah's relationship with these people, and the way these moments were written. I did like the depth of the characters, I especially felt like Sarah was extremely well developed and so easy to love.

Things I didn't like: Despite appreciating the depth of the characters, I really hated Max for most of the book. It took a really long time for him to make a turnaround for me, when he does it's great, but I think that it wasn't necessary to make him so awful in the beginning. I also wish we could have had their relationship be a little bit more drawn out, it felt a little sudden and rush, and I think it deserved more space to breathe.

Overall, good summer read, especially if you are someone who dreams of owning a bookshop in a small French village!

Pros: The cover art of this book caught my attention with its big stack of books, and when I read the description and learned it was a book in translation about a bookstore in France, I was eager to read it. The main characters reminded me a bit of Belle and the Beast.

Cons: I thought this book was going to be a rom com rather than a romance novel. I am not a fan of the romance genre, so the criticisms I might have about this book are really criticisms of romance novel tropes (e.g., the books are too predictable). I think fans of romance novels will enjoy this book, but those who are looking for more of a rom com might try a different book.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for the opportunity to read this book!

(I've shared this review on Goodreads and will share on Amazon. I copied my review to the correct book on Goodreads. Currently it's linked to a book called Omnivore. It looks like other NetGalley users have also had their reviews attached to the incorrect book on Goodreads.)

The Bookshop is a perfect summer read! It has a good mixture of sweet and sassy. I'll recommend it to my friends who need a fun, feel-good book for their beach bag.

This was a cute, adorable book! I have been wanting to read TBOFD since I seen it!
The writing was great and I connected with the characters.
Character development I really liked! Sarah and Max were amazing and cute!
What I didn't like..... Like said above the pacing honestly. I felt there could have been more!
But overall I enjoyed it, its a fun, adorable, enjoyable read!

I can't thank NetGalley, HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter and Author for this advanced ebook!

I received an arc through netgalley.

This book had a lot of potential and I did enjoy it but it just fell flat. I do not think there was enough development in the book for a lot of the things that happened. It should have spent a little bit more time developing their relationship, it felt like they had two conversations and they they were all over each other which can make sense but it did not here.

The cover is really really cute and the blurb very intriguing so I could not wait to dive into this book.

However, I disliked the main character Max. I know he comes from a certain background, but then he made it into the movies but kept messing it up. The way he behaved towards women, the anger and violence... Sarah, the bookworm was more to my liking. But what is it with the 'shy' act, because when it came to the more explicit parts of the book she was suddenly not shy anymore? :-)

I noticed the book was translated from French. It was in the way the characters talked and behaved. But the translation itself was quite good. And I liked the other characters beside Max.

Overall it was a good summer read. If you like the 'bad boy - shy girl' trope this it totally for you!

Unfortunately, there are several things that are not working with this book. I picked it up because the premise sounded great, but I didn't connect with the story or the characters.

It's a translation from the French and several things are badly done with this translation.
In French, you can have each chapter in a different 1st person POV and you'll know which character's it is (his or hers) because of the language gender pronouns. In English, that doesn't work. It should have been signaled at the beginning of each chapter which character it is. That was a bit of a mess.

Maybe French readers like exclamation points, but they don't work in English. Please, remove ALL the exclamation points! ALL of them!!! Unless a character is being murdered and asking for help, there shouldn't be any exclamation points at all. They make all the characters sound like petulant children throwing fits.

I saw on Amazon this book is being compared to Emily Henry's—please, it's nothing like it. Such a disservice to readers with that comparison.

The main characters have nothing to endear themselves to readers. There's no growth and they're very inconsistent. Sarah is very shy, she doesn't even date, but then she acts like a pro at sex.
Maxime is a mess of a guy and he acts like a 13 year old. His reformed guy act at the end of the book is not genuine.

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

Rating: 3.5/5

Another book, another romance. I'm clearly in a mood.
And. I liked this one, too. As you all know by now I'm a sucker for a bad boy with an attitude, I guess it's clear why I wanted to read this one, lol.

Max and Sarah are polar opposites. Max is a rich actor with an attitude. He is used to get what he wants. He hated his life and found solace in fighting with his fists to control the anger he had inside.
Sarah is an introvert bookworm who doesn't know how to relate with real people. Her friends are all over 50 and when life got hard, she found solace in books and alternative realities.
When Max and Sarah collide, well, let's say it's not easy, but it definitely gets interesting.
Sarah slowly opens up to life while also getting past Max's barriers.

Overall an easy read perfect for summer.

This book was a good romance read and had some plot twists I was not expecting.

Maxime is an actor with a temper problem who has gotten in one too many fights when he ends up in a back alley brawl that lands him in jail. To avoid jail, his friend, agent and lawyer come up with a deal where he leaves the big city of Paris and goes home to a small town where he will stay for 2 months and perform community service at a bookshop owned by the beautiful, but VERY shy Sarah. Not only is Maxime doing community service and helping clean up at the shop with Sarah but he is living in the room upstairs next to her and is basically on monitored house arrest at the shop for the 2 months. Now Sarah has an angry stranger under her roof, along with the theatre group she is trying to wrangle and all of the shop repairs she is already trying to juggle. Life is about to get interesting.

Some things I loved about this book were the relationship between Sarah and the people in the town. I loved the way they rallied around her and the shop. I also loved the complexity in Maxime's character and seeing him grow and develop as the story went on. There is a big story development with him as the book goes on that I really loved that added so much to him as a character and the story as a whole. The characters really shined in this one.

A few things I struggled with are there were some plot points I felt the author started to explore and then left them open or didn't really explore them like I wished she had -- the main one being Maxime's past and his relationship with this dad. I felt like that kept being teased as a main plot point but it never was really explored like I wished it had been. I also felt like the beginning of the story moved a little slow for me. It took a while for me to get into the book and really start to latch onto the story and the characters.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and the story. It was a good read with entertaining characters. I loved the romance in the story and the relationships developed. I would probably give it 3.5 stars overall.